Antec Dark Fleet DF-30 ATX Case Review

Introduction and Specifications

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Antec has a reputation for manufacturing quality PC enclosures and power supplies, but most of their older designs didn't lend themselves to the flashy desires of the PC gaming community. After researching what features and options PC gamers needed in their cases, Antec developed the mysterious Dark Fleet series. The DF series brings together the company's high craftsmanship standards and the unique requirements of PC gamers and enthusiasts. We have one of the smaller form factor Dark Fleet cases on our test bench today called the DF-30. The unique cooling system, fan controllers, and 2.5" HDD support makes it a true competitor in the mid-tower chassis market.

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The DF-30 has two access doors on the front panel with washable fan filters that open up to access an array of 11 drive bays. Each access door houses a variable-speed 120mm blue LED fan with its own individual knob-controlled fan controller. The top of the case also has a external hot-swap 2.5" SATA bay with a clear window.

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The entire chassis is painted with a matte black finish to give enthusiasts a canvas to build their dream LAN rig. The left side panel includes a uniquely-shaped side window where users can mount a 120mm fan to cool single or dual video card configurations. The back panel includes another 120mm fan with two buttons for adjusting the back and top fans to low and high settings.

Courtesy of Antec

Antec left plenty of room behind the right-side panel for cable management opportunities and even include a couple plastic cable ties and a couple places to attach the ties to the hard drive cage itself. There is also a large CPU cutout to install custom CPU coolers. Overall, this $109 mid-tower case has plenty of interesting features that should make it a fan favorite for gaming and other enthusiast-level systems.